Archive - January 2010

1
Some thoughts about auditions
2
Bragging a Little–Thanks Robert
3
Reactions to Cleveland
4
Cleveland strike is over
5
More on Cleveland
6
Nepotism, Diversity and the Audition Process–This Could be an Opera Plot
7
Cleveland on strike
8
Such a versatile instrument
9
Mein Vaterland, Mein Gott!
10
Sometimes it's hard to have a screened audition

Some thoughts about auditions

Auditions are a big subject; Polyphonic did a virtual discussion panel on the topic about three years ago and barely scratched the surface. We had two days of violin auditions at the beginning of the week, which gave me both a lot of time to think and some material to think about. So I thought[…]

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Bragging a Little–Thanks Robert

Over the past couple of months, many of you have followed the plight of the musicians of the New Hampshire Music Festival here on the Polyphonic blog.  Senior Editor and Blog-Meister, Robert Levine did an outstanding job of bringing the musician’s case to the broader public, and was undoubtedly instrumental in the favorable outcome for[…]

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Reactions to Cleveland

The Cleveland strike, and the rapidly-ensuing settlement, were the subject of more coverage in the media since… the last round of Big Five orchestra strikes. And the coverage was pretty much the same; talk of how the strike was symptomatic of fundamental issues with the health of orchestras (it wasn’t), talk about how the musicians[…]

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Cleveland strike is over

It seemed to me that this might be a short strike; in the end, it came as close as a strike could be to not being a strike at all. The only work canceled was a concert in Bloomington IN, which will likely be re-scheduled. What is reported about the settlement makes it sound like[…]

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More on Cleveland

The Cleveland strike was still ongoing as of late Monday night, at least according to Google News. The New York Times had a long article on the subject by Daniel Wakin, which seemed generally balanced and well-informed. It did include this tidbit, though: Many of the nation’s top orchestras have reduced staff positions and administrative[…]

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Nepotism, Diversity and the Audition Process–This Could be an Opera Plot

I’m going to riff a bit on Robert Levine’s January 15th blog post, Sometimes it’s hard to have a screened audition, where Robert points out the absurdity in the New York Philharmonic’s decision not to identify clarinetist, Burt Hara, who was playing what most musicians would call a trial week.  The NY Phil is looking[…]

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Cleveland on strike

At least for Monday: Oboist Jeffrey Rathbun says he and the other musicians are “sorely disappointed” management hasn’t acknowledged sacrifices they’ve made in their last two contracts or their offer to continue to work for the next contract year with no increase in salary or benefits. The musicians’ contract expired last summer. The musicians say[…]

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Such a versatile instrument

You’ve probably already seen this; it’s been doing the rounds at lightning speed. But, if not…

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Mein Vaterland, Mein Gott!

I had a library nightmare over the holidays, and I don’t mean that figuratively.  You know those performance anxiety nightmares players can have over a particular piece that’s difficult or a recurring worst-case scenario?  Well, instead of dreaming my hand wouldn’t stay on the violin fingerboard or I couldn’t identify the proper chords on the[…]

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Sometimes it's hard to have a screened audition

The New York Times reported yesterday on an odd incident at the New York Philharmonic: During a run of concerts that included Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall, ending on Tuesday evening, the Philharmonic declined to identify a substitute principal clarinetist even though the music director, Alan Gilbert, had singled him out for a[…]

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